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Identifying the Most Research Intensive Faculties of Business in Australia: A Multidimensional Approach

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Abstract

There is a growing policy focus in Australian higher education on quantitative research performance assessment. However, most of the analysis has addressed aggregate performance at the institutional level, an approach inconsistent with recent policy emphasis on diversity among universities, and one that ignores performance variations across disciplines. Using averaged and all available data for 2000-2004, cluster analysis is used to classify Australian Commerce Faculties into groups that exhibit similar research performance, measured by publication, PhD completion and secured competitive research grant funding. We also use factor analysis to generate full-multidimensional rankings within the resulting two or three clusters. It is found that in terms of total research output, with the exception of Adelaide all the Go8 members plus UTS and Griffith always belong to “Clusters A”. However, when research performance is expressed in per academic staff terms, an additional eleven universities join this same cluster. Our results additionally show that eight Australian faculties of Commerce not only possess low total research output but their per capita performance is also poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Valadkhani, Abbas & Ville, Simon, 2008. "Identifying the Most Research Intensive Faculties of Business in Australia: A Multidimensional Approach," Economics Working Papers wp08-03, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:uow:depec1:wp08-03
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    File URL: http://www.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@commerce/@econ/documents/doc/uow042312.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Faculties of Business; Australian higher education; Cluster analysis; Factor analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A19 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Other
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other

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